The US Is Neck-Deep in Yemeni Blood, by Shane Smith

From Shane Smith at antiwar.org:

The death toll from the Saudi strike on a wedding in Yemen has now risen to 130. The wedding took place near Mocha, a port city on the Red Sea. The groom was tied to the Houthi rebels somehow, which apparently assuaged whatever moral qualms remained within the Saudis, who then decided to massacre the attendees. It’s almost fitting that Saudi Arabia would commemorate the six-month mark since the beginning of their assault on Yemen’s civilian population with such a brutal act of official mass murder. So what has been the result of the six-month long pummeling of Yemeni civilians by Saudi warplanes? 5,000 killed, over 2,300 civilians dead, ports blockaded, creating a colossal humanitarian crisis. Infrastructure leveled, port cities destroyed, this war of attrition that Yemenis are being subjected to feels more like a punishment than anything, and once it’s all over it will take decades to put their country back together.

So why should any of this matter to US citizens? Because, lack of media attention notwithstanding, the US government is providing arms and strategic advice to the Saudis, midair refueling, as well as helping to choose enemy targets. The New York Times reported earlier this month of a $1 billion US weapons giveaway to Saudi Arabia, ostensibly to calm the Saudis over the Iran nuclear deal but more than likely to aid the Saudis in the slaughter of Yemenis, and reinforce the Saudis regional dominance. Indeed, assistance to Saudi Arabia in their war on Yemen is the price the US is paying for Saudi support of the Iran deal.

Where is the media outrage, where is the great debate over the wisdom of enabling such a civilian massacre? Where are all those “humanitarian” interventionists who cajoled the US into unleashing air strikes on Libya? They’re nowhere to be found, there has been little to no debate in the media, and US officials don’t even mention what is going on in Yemen. In Obama’s recent speech to the UN General Assembly included no specific mention of the Yemeni civilian death toll, because that would mean acknowledging his role in facilitating it. The UN itself has become something of a farce amid the rising civilian death toll, with the country responsible for said death toll, Saudi Arabia, heading a UN Human Rights Council.

To continue reading: The US Is Neck-Deep in Yemeni Blood